Inews – In 2016, British-Iranian charity worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was convicted of being a spy by an Iranian court. Until the Covid crisis, she was incarcerated in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison. She was then moved to her parents’ home with an ankle tag to complete her sentence. In April she was charged and convicted of “propaganda activities”. Her husband Richard Ratcliffe and his MP, Tulip …

Iranwire – United Nations human rights experts have called for the immediate release of documentary filmmaker and political activist Mohammad Nourizad, who is currently being held in Evin Prison. Stating that they feared for his life, the six special rapporteurs said in a statement published on May 4: “We strongly condemn the ill treatment of Mohammad Nourizad and the continuation of his …

Al-Arabia – Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah was ridiculed on social media with a viral fake video depicting Nasrallah rolling a marijuana cigarette. The video emerged following news of a giant drug bust in Saudi Arabia of illicit narcotics traveling from Lebanon to the Kingdom. For all the latest headlines follow our Google News channel online or via the app. Hezbollah, …

Al-Arabia – Iran made several attempts to obtain technology in 2020 to bolster its weapons of mass destruction (WMD) program and consistently tried to develop atomic weapons, a new Dutch intelligence report found. For all the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app. The Netherlands ‘ General Intelligence and Security Service published a report in April which …

gatestoneinstitute.org – “Those who commit the same mistakes and expect different results are deceiving themselves.” — Abdullah bin Bajad Al-Otibi, Saudi writer and researcher, Alarabiya.net, April 19, 2021. After the deal expires in a few years…. Iran may build as many nuclear weapons as it wants. In that sense, the JCPOA deal was a runway to a full-blown nuclear weapons …

Iranwire – Karmel Melamed is an internationally published award-winning Iranian American journalist based in Southern California. In this article for IranWire, he examines the life and times of a Jewish Iranian entrepreneur and businessman whose contributions to all of Iran were brutally cut short after the Islamic Revolution. This Sunday, May 9 will mark the 42nd anniversary of the execution …

Iranwire – The 20-year sentence of an Iranian diplomat for his part in a bomb plot in France has been finalised after his lawyers withdrew their appeal. Asadollah Asadi, who was formerly stationed at the Iranian embassy in Vienna, received the maximum jail sentence from a court in Antwerp, Belgium in February 2021 together with three other Iranian nationals for planning …

Al-Monitor – A group of independent United Nations human rights experts on Tuesday called on Iran to release a jailed dissident filmmaker whose severe health complications put him at risk of death. “We are seriously concerned at the mistreatment of Mohammad Nourizad and his continued imprisonment for expressing his opinion,” the experts said, adding that his “case is emblematic of …

Iran Human Rights (IHR) – IHR’s Annual Report of the Death Penalty in Iran sets out the procedures in the issuance of death sentences by Iran’s judicial system. Read the full report (pdf) Access to lawyer Article 35 of the Iranian Constitution grants access to lawyers. The Criminal Procedure Code drafted in 2013 and the 2015 amendments address, among others, …

Al-Monitor – Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said one of its members was “martyred” during intense clashes with Kurdish fighters near the border with Iraq early on May 4. The IRGC claimed to have inflicted heavy losses on the infiltrating militants but did not release casualty figures. The clashes took place in the mountainous area of Dara Nakhi, near the …